Medicamentos utilizados no tratamento da obesidade: revisão da Literatura

Obesity is a disease with a multifactorial cause with high incidence and prevalence today in the world. According to the World Health Organization (WTO), obesity is characterized by excessive accumulation of fat and its diagnosis is made mainly through the use of the Body Mass Index (BMI) whose calculation is performed by the divided mass by height squared. BMI values above 30 generally mean that the individual is somewhat obese. However, it is necessary to evaluate with criteria, since the BMI does not differentiate the muscle from the fat, thus being very important to evaluate the corporal distribution. Data published by the Ministry of Health in April 2017 show that 1 in 5 people in Brazil are overweight, which demonstrates that this disease has already acquired a high relevance in the country. It is known that obesity in many cases is associated with hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia and insulin resistance, a condition called Metabolic Syndrome. Thus, the treatment of obese patients in order to reduce their fat mass is necessary to prevent diseases caused by these metabolic changes, such as acute myocardial infarction and stroke. In addition to lifestyle changes, the use of medications for the treatment of obese patients is extremely important, therefore, this study aims to review the medications used in the pharmacotherapy of obese patients.